From January 31st until the 3rd of February I was in Brussels for FOSDEM, a convention about OpenSource and where people talk about IT and very many projects. I have to say that I’m not very interested in IT, but these conferences are always a great place to meet some people, improve my English and especially meet old and good friends. I’m going to these conferences with my dad for my entire life and I always like it. One of the most important conferences for me is indeed FOSDEM.
Arrival at BRU
Unlike last year, this year I didn’t have the opportunity to attend the FOSDEM PGDay on Friday, because on that day we got our half-year’s certificates in school here in Brandenburg (a state in Germany) and the winter holidays didn’t officially start until Monday. So unfortunately I couldn’t go with my father on Thursday. For that reason it also wasn’t clear for quite a long time whether I would even be able to go Brussels this year. Until Christmas, when my parents surprised me with a Brussels Airlines ticket. That meant that I was flying from BER (Berlin) to BRU (Brussels) on Friday, after school. All by myself!
For me, this was nothing new, neither flying nor Brussels. Or both. I have flown several times, both domestically and internationally (outside of Schengen), and I have been to Brussels several times before, so I know the city very well, at least the parts that were relevant to me. And I had also flown to Brussels once before, in 2019 with my mother. So I exactly knew what to expect, except for one small thing: I would be flying alone for the first time in my life. So far, I have always flown with at least one of my parents or another adult.
So I came home on Friday with my school certificate and a huge amount of anticipation. I then finished packing my backpack (luckily my father had taken the suitcase with him) and headed to BER. My flight left at 6:35 p.m., so I had the whole afternoon. However, you shouldn’t be at the airport at the last minute, but rather a few hours in advance. It also takes over an hour to get to the airport, which is btw. at the literal other end of Berlin. So I planned extra time for myself (I left at half past one). When I arrived at the airport, I went straight through security and checked on Flightradar24 to see if my plane had already left Brussels. Of course not, it was 4:15 p.m. and it was planned to leave at 4:21 p.m. So I first walked through Terminal 1 and checked what kind of planes were at the gates. Unfortunately, there were only Lufthansa Group Airlines, two Airfrance and a few aasyjet planes there. There were also only a few Ryanair 737s at Terminal 2 and later in the evening an A330ceo from Turkish (the link is the video I took) arrived, but that was pretty much it. My plane landed at 5:30. It was an Airbus A320neo, which was really cool for me. I’ve only flown on a Neo twice in my entire life. Or at least the flights I remember.
Boarding was at 6:10 p.m. Unfortunately, the plane was delayed, so we didn’t take off until 7 p.m.. After takeoff, I noticed how different the neo is from the ceo. The cabin is much quieter than the ceo and, above all, the ambience is much better. On the flight, I realized for the first time how much of a difference that can make. I had only flown in a plane with Airbus’s new Airspace cabin¹ once before and I didn’t pay any attention to it at that time.
The flight was pretty bumpy. The plane already stroke turbulences shortly after takeoff in Berlin and there was also some turbulence at cruising altitude. But nothing serious. During landing we had crosswinds, which lead to the right landing gear touching down first². Apart from that the flight was smooth. After we arrived at the gate and left the plane, I had to find my way around first. The BRU is completely different to BER, FRA or other airports I frequently travel through. And as I said, I had only traveled with my parents before. At some point I just followed the crowd to the exit. Luckily I didn’t have to go to one of the conveyor belts to pick-up my luggage, but could go straight to the train station.
There were only 8 counters in total at the train station, which surprised me a bit, because even so late in the evening (it was after 8 p.m.) there were a lot of people at the counters and the queue has been pretty long. I don’t want to know how annoying it must be when you have to stand there during Rush Hour.
A short while later I had my ticket and went down to the platforms. A train was already standing there and waiting for me. And then I could relax again. Unfortunately I was a bit too relaxed and almost missed the main station. Well, to be fair, I looked on Google Maps to see how many stations there were and it showed me another stop before the main station, but this train didn’t stop at this station, it went straight to the main station. I didn’t notice that until the train was almost at a stop and I saw the sign passing the window. I ran out of the train. Lucky me the stop there was quite long, so I still made it.
I went to the hotel first because I know the area from last year and how to get to the restaurant from there on. On the way to the hotel I passed the local Hard Rock Cafe. Of course I had to take a picture for my friend Devrim. The HRC is also right next to the town hall, which is beautifully lit up at night. Then I head to the restaurant to meet the rest of the crew.
After dinner, Dad and I went to the hotel bar first and, for the first time on this vacation, I went to the lounge, took a few snacks to the room, and then went to bed.
Saturday - first day FOSDEM
The night was pretty short, we had to go to breakfast at 7 a.m. Unfortunately, it was pretty cold the two days in Brussels. And of course I was smart enough to only pack short sleeping clothes. This would later prove to be my downfall. Unfortunately, the temperature only rose slowly over the day, despite bright sunshine, and on the second day it didn’t go above 5 degrees. However, many long and cold hours had passed before we got there. In sub-zero temperatures I also helped the PostgreSQL-Team carry the things from the cars to the booth (which has been at the other end of the campus). Unfortunately, FOSDEM and the university campus aren’t small either. The halls were constantly full, which is why I avoided staying in overcrowded places as much as possible. My main activity was actually looking at the stands, working in one of the cafeterias, or walking around the campus and listening to music. I had also picked out a talk that day that I wanted to watch. Unfortunately the room was full, even before the talk started, and the line in front of the room went all the way to the other end of the corridor. And that was even though I got there a few minutes earlier. There were still more than 20 minutes until the lecture started. This is pretty common for FOSDEM, one has to be lucky or very early (as early as one talk before) to get into a room. So I decided to give it a miss and went to the nearest cafeteria again.
At around 3 p.m. I got hungry for the first time, which is strange, as a teenager I can’t normally sit around for even 2 minutes without dying of hunger. And that day, because of my endless walks, I was actually much more active than usually at school. At that time, Dad asked me if we wanted to meet at the food trucks that were set up in the middle of the campus. He hadn’t eat anything yet either. He got a waffle and I got a pizza. The waiting lines at the food trucks are similarly long as the waiting lines in front of the rooms with the talks. At some point dad and I finally got our food and we took a walk around the campus together. That was one of the best moments of the entire weekend.
One thing I didn’t notice last year is that the sky over Brussels is one of the busiest in all of Europe. Makes sense, the city is directly on the route between Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Orient and the United States. So there were mainly long-haul jets in the sky. Among them were some A380s. On Saturday I saw 6 of them. I didn’t even see that many back in Los Angeles, and there have been quite a few planes in the air back then.
Around 6 p.m. we packed up. And the carrying started again. The stuff couldn’t stay at the booth over night, so we had to carry most of the stuff back to the cars. Good thing it was a bit warmer by that time, and the sun was shining. Fun fact: this was the first FOSDEM weekend with sunshine both days. Apparently this never happened before.
On the way back from the university, we noticed what happens when a city changes from being car-friendly to car-restrictive. We stood at a traffic light for 20 minutes because it was green very long for pedestrians. And then, just before the traffic light, there was another street that connected to ours. Chaos was inevitable. A tailgater almost drove into us. Brussels these days encourages you not to take the car, but use alternative forms of public transportation. It shows. Unfortunately because of all the stuff in our car we had to drive.
Sunday - 2nd day FOSDEM
On Sunday even more had to be carried from the cars, because that day the PostgreSQL project had its own Devroom, which of course also needed its own advertising and material. When we had carried everything over, I helped watching the door for the first 1 1/2 hours. The cool thing about it was that I got my own walkie-talkie. The annoying thing was that I actually planned to write the first words of this blog post right there. Unfortunately, the organizers of the conference didn’t take down the notes from the day before during the night. So, despite the massive advertising in front of the room, many people thought that this wasn’t the PostgreSQL Devroom. So I had to keep answering the same questions: “Is this the Postgres Devroom” and “Can I go in?” Therefore I was busy directing people and didn’t really get a chance to write. After these 1 1/2 hours my dad finally pulled up and we walked around the campus again to see if there was anything new. He also wanted to speak to someone from one of the projects.
Unfortunately, there was not much new compared to yesterday and he also missed that person (luckily this was resolved later in the day). Instead, we went to the KDE booth to collect stickers for my talk about OpenShot and Kdenlive at the CLT³.
Anecdotes from 25 years of FOSDEM
At least on Sunday I had the opportunity to go to a lecture that was interesting to me: Anecdotes from 25 years of FOSDEM. It was about some funny anecdotes that came up during the time here at FOSDEM
As I later found out from my dad, he forgot to submit his anecdote in the survey. Or rather, mine…
My first time at FOSDEM was when I was 3 months old. That would’ve been a cool anecdote!
In the afternoon I had to experience first hand how big FOSDEM has become. Or rather my stomach. At around 4 p.m. I finally got something to eat from the food trucks. Because unlike the day before, the food trucks were full of people all afternoon, even at 4 p.m. After which I simply got in line. I didn’t want to wait any longer, especially since there would be dinner again.
At 6 p.m. the same process as yesterday began again. Bringing loads of boxes from the booth to the car. At around 7:30 p.m. This time with more shuffling, because the conference is over and everyone needs to have the right boxes in their car. After that we went out to eat for a second time.
The only thing I can criticize about this weekend (apart from the number of people) is that it was so damn cold. The night from Saturday to Sunday was particularly cold and I didn’t really get warm during the day. On Monday on the way back I already had a slight sore throat.
As I write these first lines I am sitting at home with a school exemption and a bad illness.
Monday - Last day
My last day in Brussels was very short and yet so long. After we left the city center (that took us over 2 hours btw.), we drove home without any traffic jams. However, with a few stops
1. Netherlands and westernmost point of Germany
Between Brussels and Dusseldorf, the motorway runs for a few kilometers through the southernmost part of the Netherlands. We took advantage of this, as there are some products in the Netherlands that are not available here in Germany. And the westernmost point of Germany is nearby. So we took a short detour and visited the platform. It is considered a POI (Point of Interest), there is a parking space nearby and one can take pictures and selfies.
Funny enough, the moment we wanted to drive off, all the sirens of the surrounding fire departments went off.
The moment we drove over the border I immediately had to think about how great the EU really is. Two days before, I flew to Brussels with only the need to go through security. And at that day I crossed two borders within less of an hour. And we could’ve bought some goods in the Netherlands without having to declare it. It was one the many times I really like what the EU has become and what Schengen really means.
2. Vlotho + Bückeburg
Of course we needed lunch at some point. We got it from a bakery in Vlotho (NRW).
After that we drove to the nearby town of Bückeburg, where Dad took a few photos for his Stolpersteine project. The Stolpersteine were only a few hundred meters from the airbase of the Internationales Hubschrauber Ausbildungszentrum der Bundeswehr (international helicopter training center of the German Army). So while he was looking for the Stolpersteine I was able to do a bit of plane spotting, or rather helicopter spotting (the link is the video I took there).
We spent the rest of the trip planning my presentation for the CLT³ and dealing with math.
Dinner in Magdeburg
In the evening we stopped for about an hour in Magdeburg at a Subway. Also our tank slowly ran out of gasoline, so we stopped at a nearby gas station, before we left the city and headed back home to Berlin.
At around 10 p.m. we finally arrived at home. But of course that wasn’t bad. Because I was able to sleep in the next day. Yes, school holidays are great!
¹ Airspace is the name for the modern cabin that has been installed in Airbus aircrafts following the A380. It is intended to give passengers a better feeling onboard their aircrafts. What they have clearly achieved.
² Crabbing: Crabbing is a method that pilots use to land safely when the wind is coming from the side. The flying pilot turns the aircraft into the wind, which means that one wing is constantly higher than the other and one landing gear touches down earlier than the other. (simplified explanation)
³ CLT is the short-term for Chemnitzer Linux-Tage (Chemnitz Linux-Days), which is every year in March in (of course) Chemnitz.